HONG KONG (Reuters) – Acupuncture may not help alleviate labour pain, according to a review of past studies trying to establish the efficacy of the treatment.

Researchers from South Korea and Britain examined data from ten clinical trials involving 2,038 women and found scant evidence that women who had undergone acupuncture experienced less labour pain than those who received no pain relief, a conventional painkiller, a placebo or bogus acupuncture.

"In this review, acupuncture did not seem to have any impact on other maternal or foetal outcomes, nor was it associated with harm," wrote Hyangsook Lee from the Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Centre at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.

The review was published last week in the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.Acupuncture has been used as a form of anaesthesia in China for at least 2,600 years and experts believe it can clear blockages in circulation.